Brought to Dartmouth for a week-long Dartmouth residency by the Montgomery Foundation, international theater and opera director Peter Sellars' schedule was packed with visits to theater, architecture, English and film classes; student rehearsals, individual consultations with creative students, and public pre- and post-performance and film discussions (not to mention his Montgomery Fellowship lecture on February 10th in Spaulding Auditorium). Sellars' ideas followed inspired tangents, connecting thousands of years of history, geographical continents, and political and ethical issues. Time and again, he returned to the importance of social consciousness.

Sellars' residency connected to the Hopkins Center's three-year Class Divide Initiative. He observed, "'Class Divide' as a phrase calls our attention to serious injustice that is around us every day, and forces us to recognize something we're trained to turn a blind eye to. The reason we can take this on as artists? Culture is the one field where all human beings are actually equal. You can't demonstrate equality politically, economically. But you can, culturally. All human beings are created equal. We're here as artists to prove that."